There is a substantial body of evidence that microwave radiation, even at the low levels used by wi-fi, may have harmful effects on health, both short-term and long-term, especially the health of children. Despite that evidence, or probably in ignorance of it, many schools have in very recent years installed wi-fi.

Concern about the effects of wi-fi is not concern about the use of computers or of the internet. It is concern about how computers are connected to the internet.

In countries other than the UK, governments are beginning to act on the evidence. The German federal government has advised everyone, not only children, to avoid wi-fi. 1 In the UK, the government has yet to take the issue seriously.

UK schools have a statutory duty of care towards children in relation to their health. School governors are required by law to ensure that equipment used in school is safe. But the only official advice on the safety of wi-fi to which governors can refer is based on international standards that are widely disputed. These standards do not take into account the evidence of risk from low-level microwave radiation.

Schools and parents have therefore to judge for themselves whether or not children should spend their school days exposed to such radiation, and to the dangers experts have associated with it.